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Finally! A post from this blog. Mak was supposed to be keeping the place up, but I don’t think he has been here in a while. Cobwebs and dust bunnies all over the place…

I eventually got the boat I have mentioned in earlier posts and comments restored to the point it can be taken out. We have had a ball with it, It is truly a pleasure to go for a boat ride on Ky. Lake, especially in a boat you brought back from the dead. I took my digiscoping rig (An Orion ED 80 Apochromatic telescope and a lightweight digital camera) with me the last time we went out, hoping for some good wildlife shots, but I soon discovered the boat itself is a terrible platform for taking pics, no matter how solid and stable the boat is, if there is more than a ripple in the water the image in my magnified picture taking view looks like we are out to sea in 20 foot waves. One of those “it seemed like a good idea” moments. I also discovered that the annual migration of the pelicans had either already taken place, or I was early. Darn it.

It was hot, probably around 92 degrees and humid. So every time the boat came to rest the heat immediately slapped us in the face. The water was down too making it difficult to get around. There are hundreds of shallow bars and underwater obstacles to be wary of, it pays to know your way around.

Anyway I tried to get a pic from the boat, that wasn’t happening, so I just grabbed the tripod, scope and all, and set it down at waters edge to get a few pics. First up is a pair of gulls. Note the exposed bar they are standing on is usually under 3-4 feet of water in summer months.

This one I suspect is an Egret?

This one highlights the low water danger. It is obvious the stumps on the shallow bar, my trained eye sees that you do not want to get anywhere near it. The shallow water goes well beyond what you can see. I have seen guys lose their lower units from their boat motors from these kinds of places, or knock the entire back end of the boat out because they did not understand the lay of the land and go running around with wide open throttles. Dumbasses…

This one a Great Blue Heron standing on a point jutting out into the water. Note the ripples indicating shallow water well beyond the heron.

This one a lonely Cypress with some gulls for company. That’s all of my river shots for today, but can you imagine this scenery being the place you worked for 3 decades? I was the luckiest guy…

This next one, being an old pot smoker from days gone by, I got a whimsical chuckle from this sign.

Sun Dog!

Guess what? Another Sun Dog! Certainly less spectacular, but a sun dog nonetheless.

This one is a result of my strange eye. I saw the reflection of the “Objects in mirror are closer than they appear” thing reflected across the side of this red truck. You can see my forearm and legs there, and the front wheel of the car in the reflection too. Also I had no idea anyone was in the truck when I took the pic! You can see their fingers in the shot. They probably thought me a weirdo, they could be right…

This was a bright cloud that caught my attention.

A foggy sunrise. Almost looks like it is hovering over the field.

This one, we went to the Kroger, I parked next to this truck. Had to get the pic. If you can’t read the sticker in the window it says “Resist Democrats” “Resist Lying Media” The Trump sign speaks for itself, and the owner of the vehicle. You know, what you can’t see here, I got a good look, the guys truck was literally painted in places with a rattle can. This guy is not exactly living the Republican dream, but he is living the delusion for sure. (I assume it was guy. Probably a pussy grabber!)

A Tennessee sunset.

This is a new moon (just above the dark cloud) from a few days ago. The iphone did not care for the low light, it is a crappy pic, but here it is anyway!

This is the last one. A lonely bunch of Black Eyed Susans with the ready to harvest corn as a backdrop. I saw this and realized the corn would be gone soon, and the pic impossible afterward. Fall is upon us. This would be one tough puzzle!

That’s it for this one, hope you enjoyed. I’ll see you guys and gals soon.

I had mentioned I had some pics and would do my best to get to posting them. Here we go.

Gee this is a long skid, I wonder what happened?

Ohhhh! I actually talked to the guy that owns the truck, he said he was dodging two deer, when the third one jumped in front of him. The bent frame on the truck did not happen with the deer collision. He said it jumped out of park on a long hill and hit a tree at the bottom, which satisfied my curiosity. I was really wondering if a deer collision could cause a bent frame like that. I honestly don’t know how or why the guy was driving this vehicle with a frame bent this badly, but we do what we gotta do sometimes. The guy claimed he was doing 55 mph when I asked how fast he was going. Yeah sure he was… He is still driving this truck!

I was driving home after a long day in Nashville, (yearly follow up with the wifes neurologist) the day turned somewhat overcast and I knew it was a good opportunity to maybe catch a sun dog. I kept looking to the sky and was finally rewarded 🙂 I apologize I had to shoot it over the top of a Pentecostal church, but it was my first and best break in the tree line.

This next one is a sun pillar, a very weak one. I only saw a couple of these through the winter and this one is the only one you can see in a pic. And it isn’t exactly easy to spot, but it is there. Try moving your head from side to side (an old astronomy trick for seeing very faint objects in a telescope, moving your eye/s a bit helps engage rods and cones) it pops a little when you do that.

We had a very windy night the night before. I had to go into the school the next morning and get a paper for tax purposes. Apparently you have to prove to the IRS you really have kids… I saw this on the way out and thought it was a great metaphor for certain times in my life.

Spot the Owl! I was shooting through the windshield of my truck with an iPhone, so the clarity is lacking. I kept easing up, and getting closer, trying to see when he would spook and fly away. Never did. I know had I gotten out of the truck I’d never have got a shot. Well, with an owl in it.

Closer.

These next three were from a foggy morning. I was on the way home after dropping the wife off where she works. First the sunrise through the trees. This is the road I live on.

Spiders! This looked somewhat scenic so I shot it.

This one is the sun through the fog. I could have dodged the powerlines and stop sign but was too lazy to manuever around. Shame on me 😉

A while back there was a lunar eclipse. I have literally seen a dozen of these, but I decided to set up my ED 80 refractor and see if I could get a few shots. Then the clouds promptly moved in. I was late getting to the eclipse as it was already well under way. I shot through the clouds anyway being a hard headed fool at times. Here are a few, I couldn’t help but think with the cloud cover this resembled a solar eclipse rather than a lunar eclipse. There is a solar eclipse in August I will not miss!

That’s all folks! The weather is getting better which means I’ll be out looking for stuff to shoot!

This is a wheel bug I caught crossing the porch. I looked this one up as I had no idea what it was. I would have called it a gear bug though. 🙂

This next one I still do not know what it is. I looked in my bug book and scoured the net for leaf mimics, as I’m pretty sure at least of that. But no luck with an identity. First an aerial view then the side to show the caterpillar-like segmented body. I found this little critter when I went out to bring in the hummingbird feeder to put more nectar in it.

This next one I was getting in the truck to go somewhere, I saw the robber fly sitting there when I opened the door. He didn’t go anywhere when I did, which prompted me to take a closer look. What I found was he is quite busy with a housefly he had caught. Look closely and you can see the probocis impaling the little fly. Mr. robber fly was too busy sucking him dry to be concerned with me opening the truck door or the taking of pictures.

Next up a brightly colored butterfly on the porch. I’ll have you know the doormat has since been swept.

The next three are all of the same timber rattlesnake. I found this one freshly dead on the road, on the way to the house where my wife works as a home health care nurse. The people who live there love rattlesnake. As this ones head was smooshed and the body was fine I packed it up and took it to them. Let me tell you, you haven’t lived until you have picked up a dead rattlesnake and the damn thing twitched! I knew it was dead, knew it couldn’t bite me, but I still jumped and damn near pissed myself when that thing did the dead critter jitter. As it was found:

Close up of the rattle, which I still have.

And stretched out on the guys shop floor:

This next one, what can I say? I was in the Wal Mart, walking down the aisle when I spotted this. We did not try them. Haven’t seen them again. Oddly enough I made biscuits and sausage gravy, from scratch, just this morning. It was good.

This one, I made a trip to the dump, this sign was and still is stretched across the fence. See anything odd about it? Other than the fact you have to tell people not to go through the trash…?

Some more southern spelling. This one in a flea market:

This next one is most likely a case of an oppossum getting stuck in a plastic bag, meandering out into the road and getting hit by a car. Either that or Wal Mart is selling fresh oppossum and I didn’t know about it! Please keep up with your plastic bags folks. Not that that will keep oppossums from getting run over by cars, but still…

Finally, and yes I spend too much time in the Wal Mart, another indication of the religious soaked south. Nothing like advertising your religion, it does help us spot the weirdos 🙂

That’s it till next time! I hope you enjoyed this version of Picture Day!

It is high time I got off my butt and posted something. I have been meaning to post some pics, I’m always looking up because their is often cool stuff to see up there, I like nature too and get pics of critters when I can. Or if I just see something that interests me I try to get a pic of it. Let’s go.

First some interesting religion themed pics. The first one had some message they were trying to convey, but if you caught it at just the right time you got (“Hate Within”, cameras really do not like these digital signs):

This next one I just love. It is a church steeple, in a scrap yard!

Next up, one day after a strong storm moved through, this was the view of the clouds:

Spot the Buzzards!

This next one is a con trail that has decayed in a spiral fashion, I thought it was cool and got a pic.

Moon over a bean field.

This next one, the boys and I were fishing when this flock of birds flew in the bay. They were making quite an audible fuss, splashing about and carrying on, kinda hard to see them, a lot of these pics were taken on an iphone.

The next two are similar cloud formations, the second one was atop a pretty nasty storm.

Spot the squirrel!

This next one is strange, look for the dark streak moving vertically from close to the taller tower. I’m still not sure what this was, but I think it has something to do with a decayed con trail that left a dark streak in the sky.

Spot the dead deer with an atypical rack! This was shot through the windshield of the car (obviously).

I was about to go into a Lowes when I looked up and saw this.

Spot the rattlesnake! This little guy may have been 18″ long or so, small but deadly.

This one was just an interesting cloud shot.

Finally a rainbow from the front porch. Oddly enough we didn’t even get any rain…